Buy it... if you prefer the exuberance of Patrick Doyle's triumphant brass
themes and adventurous spirit, a sound restricted mostly to his early
compositions until this entry resurrected it in full glory.

Avoid it... if an emotionally sappy collection of swashbuckling themes by
Doyle doesn't interest you as much as the music from his heavier classical works.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #568

WRITTEN
11/7/03, REVISED 3/16/09

BUY IT

Doyle

Secondhand Lions: (Patrick Doyle) In one of the more off-beat
and imaginative endeavors in modern filmmaking, Secondhand Lions tells the
story of African adventures while set in the cornfields of Texas. As improbable as
that concept may seem, the film's hearty storytelling format allows the imagination
of a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) to run wild while listening to the tall tales of
youthful adventures in Africa as told by his recently rich, but equally eccentric
uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall). While the actual setting of the film is
rooted in America's South, the cartoonish adventures span the globe in Indiana
Jones fashion, and before production even began on Secondhand Lions,
director Tim McCanlies had his heart set upon the services of composer Patrick
Doyle to bring out the varied emotions of these travels. Although McCanlies was a
fan of Doyle's classics of the previous 15 years, the director had chosen to use a
Korngold approach of swashbuckling heroics for his temp tracking for the
production. Charged with writing music that was very heavily layered with thematic
development, Doyle was given a full year to score Secondhand Lions, a luxury
rarely seen in the film music industry. Through McCanlies' style of working, Doyle
would be involved with the production to such an extent that voice-overs by Michael
Caine would have to be re-recorded in greater volume to compensate for the loftier
heights of Doyle's background music. For fans of Doyle's exuberant styles who
wondered where the composer's efforts had been directed in the few sparse years of
scoring production in the early 2000's, Secondhand Lions was mostly the
answer (along with Doyle's other continuing projects outside of the film scoring
arena). Due to both budgetary constraints and a growing confidence in the
capabilities of Eastern European recording ensembles and facilities, Doyle
journeyed to Bratislava and recorded the score with Slovakian players, most of
whom, helpfully, spoke English.

Doyle was reportedly proud of his work for Secondhand
Lions at the time of its release because it served as one of the more varied
examples of his talents. He addresses the needs of the Texas location to some
extent (with a banjo and slide guitar in only a few places), but his collection
of bold and emotionally diverse themes range mostly from the Korngold era of
swashbuckling adventure to the lyrical drums and vocals of the African jungle. At
the core of the score are those many themes and motifs, and each of them exhibits
the same rich harmony and emotional depth that fans of the composer had come to
expect. The sense of optimism in all of these statements raises memories of the
most flighty moments of Much Ado About Nothing and other hopelessly upbeat
ventures. There are snippets of Doyle's flowing romance from his Shakespearian
scores as well, but for listeners who have heard Doyle provide these sounds
before, the action and adventure material is the truly enticing element here. As
for swashbuckling writing, listeners know from his music for Shipwrecked
early in his career that he is capable of superb brass statements for the high
seas. In Secondhand Lions, many great sea-faring and adventurous ideas are
introduced, but few of them last long enough to sustain that level of excitement.
The same difficulty arises when enjoying the African cues. The performances of
African percussion and Ola Onabue's vocals have the same boyish charm, and yet
their appearances are infrequently scattered throughout the film and album as
well. Thus, you finish with a collection of Doyle's typically strong ideas, but
with perhaps a few too many loose ends to completely satisfy yourself with the
overall listening experience. That said, Doyle's ability to compose with simple
thematic structures, often with triumphant brass in counterpoint, is what holds
this effort together. Nowhere is this heroic spirit more evident than in the
French horn performances of "Walter Comes Home," with perhaps even a slight
thematic lift from James Horner's Apollo 13 at the end.

The sustained quality of thematic integration in Secondhand
Lions causes the score to become what Quest for Camelot could have been
if it had not been interrupted constantly by songs and slapstick cues. In fact, for
listeners unsatisfied with the underdeveloped nature of much of that 1998 animation
film score, Secondhand Lions is a satisfactory solution. A particular
highlight of this score is the saddening, but beautiful performance by Doyle's son,
Patrick Doyle Jr. (whose voice is outstanding), in the "She Was a Real Lion" cue.
That performance is the culmination of the story's touching, sentimental side,
reminding the listener that the storytellers who are recalling these adventures
from their youths are themselves at the twilight of their lives. Film critics,
however, knocked Secondhand Lions for being too sappy and emotionally pure,
and some of that overly-dramatic taste may very well have resulted from Doyle's
contribution. The composer never yields with his enthusiastic tone, even in the
score's few moments of genuine mystery or suspense. Don't expect to hear a moment
of extended dissonance to disturb the consistently pleasant atmosphere. On album,
the score is presented in 45 minutes without interruption, ending in an elegant
piano performance of the film's primary thematic ideas (not as rolling and intense
as East-West or Doyle's other heavily dramatic piano work, but rather a
softer variant). Although the album offers a fantastic collection of extra
multimedia on its enhanced portion (and this time, unlike most albums with enhanced
material only pertaining to the film itself, this one is actually relates to the
construction of the score, its sheet music, and interviews about the music), the
features were inaccessible on Apple Mac computers of the era. Still, collectors of
Doyle's work will not want to pass on this album; it presents the composer at his
most adventurous and extroverted, and for his fans who had been frustrated with his
primarily classical, arthouse scores of recent years, Secondhand Lions was a
welcome return to soaring styles of times past. ****@Amazon.com: CD or
Download

Bias Check:

For Patrick Doyle reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.83
(in 29 reviews)and the average viewer rating is 3.47
(in 21,746 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

The insert includes a note about Doyle and the film from director Tim
McCanlies. The enhanced portion of the CD includes interviews with the director and
Doyle, interactive sheet music, and a photo gallery from the recording sessions.